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Nabeel Rajab was brought to court in handcuffs on 5 August

BCHR

If you want to help free human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, jailed in Bahrain for his posts on Twitter, then you can take action here.

Nabeel Rajab is the President of IFEX's member in Bahrain, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and Director of the Gulf Center for human Rights (GCHR) who was sentenced to three years in jail on 16 August in relation to his role organising peaceful protests in the country calling for reforms. He has been detained since 9 July for tweets calling for the Prime Minister to step down in June.

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Civicus posted the following Take Action to free human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, which has been modified to update the verdicts on 16 August 2012:

On 16 August 2012, Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), was sentenced to three years imprisonment on charges of illegal assembly.

Nabeel Rajab has been serving a sentence of 3 months in prison since 9 July after being found guilty of charges relating to twitter comments made against the prime minister. Rajab has been arrested and released twice since early May. Bahraini authorities have also accused Rajab of using social networking sites to incite illegal marches and rallies and Rajab has yet to face those charges.

Reason behind Bars:Nabeel Rajab is a prominent human rights defender who has been advocating for citizens rights since the 1990's. He is president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights. On June 6th Nabeel was arrested for posting messages on twitter that Bahraini authorities considered to be critical of the current regime. He was initially arrested on 5 May at Manama's airport, upon his arrival from the Lebanese capital, Beruit and accused of "insulting statutory bodies, participating in illegal demonstrations and inciting others to join. He was charged with inciting illegal rallies using social networking sites and jailed. He was later released on bail on 28 May 2012 but rearrested on 6 June following his most recent twitter comments calling for the Prime Minister to step down.

Nabeel has been a prolific campaigner against the continuing and widespread human rights violations in Bahrain, which have been taking place since demands for democracy as part of the Arab Spring were suppressed in March 2011. His most recent arrest is connected to his calls for the authorities to stop violating the rights of Bahrainis and implement reforms.

Nabeel, was a keynote speaker at the CIVICUS World Assembly in 2011 and gave a powerful account of the systemic repression of protestors in Bahrain which resulted in serious injuries of hundreds of demonstrators and imprisonment of scores of human rights defenders through sham trials.

Nabeel is a prisoner of conscience who has been targeted repeatedly by the government of Bahrain for his human rights activities.

Take Action:Please write appeals to the Bahraini authorities and call on them to immediately and unconditionally release Nabeel Rajab and other prisoners of conscience in the country. Also request that all charges against Nabeel be dropped upon his release.

What other IFEX members are saying

Related stories on ifex.org

IFEX, the world's largest network of free expression organisations, strongly denounces the three-year prison sentence handed down on 16 August 2012 to Nabeel Rajab, president of IFEX member Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), for his role in pro-democracy protests.

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), and the Bahrain Institute for Right & Democracy (BIRD) analyze all the statements and resolutions of the member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), the European Parliament (EP), the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), and the UN Secretary-General since 2011 in order to track the international reaction to the deterioration of Bahrain’s human rights situation.

Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain14 September 2016

Through this report the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) aims to highlight cases of ongoing killings, attacks and threats against journalists and other media workers in four countries, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and makes recommendations to enhance their protection using international mechanisms including the United Nations system.

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